Objects D'Art

Artist CVs

Current Exhibition - Dream Rift

Thomas Pederson

Thomas Pederson () is a Danish designer, whose Stingray chair launched him onto the design scene in 2002. His fascination with alternative materials has taken him away from using wood, while creating works that are expressions of typical Danish modernist furniture aesthetics of simple forms and organically styled lines. His furniture designs are inspired by the shape of the body and the way it can interact with solid objects, like chairs and stools. In this way, Pederson’s designs can be shown to emulate and draw inspiration from the iconic work of Charles and Ray Eames. Pederson has opened his own design studio, in collaboration with two other designers, called Spark. Spark challenges design practice through an extensive and conglomerate knowledge of architecture and technical basis so that their work is innovative and refreshing.

Thomas Pederson was set to graduate from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 2002, where he was forced to work in the parking lot due to a lack of space for working with fiberglass – a relatively new medium for the students to be allowed to work in. His experiments eventually lead to the production of his famous Stingray chair that works around principles of form and the body to create a chair that holds the sitter. In 2008, Pederson was awarded the Danish Design Prize for 2008/09, and again was honored with the accolade of the Red Dot Design Award for innovative design as well as the highly prestigious Best in Show award at the Cologne International Furniture Fair.

Thomas Pederson designed the Stingray Chair for his graduating work, from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 2002. His experimentations with fiberglass were unconventional at the time but reference the work of Charles and Ray Eames. The very word ‘stingray’ translates to ‘rokke’ in Danish, which phonetically links to the English ‘rock’ – associating the chair as a rethinking around a rocking chair design. The shape of the chair imitates and illustrates the movement and form of a stingray, elegant and smooth. The chair was launched at the Copenhagen Furniture Fair and has been produced by Fredericia ever since.